TRUSTEE-BY-AREA VOTING MAP APPROVED

School elections will change in Escondido

ESCONDIDO 
The Escondido Union High School District board unanimously approved a trustee-area boundary map Tuesday night, another step in the process that will change the way school board members are elected.

“There was a good debate,” board President Tina Pope said Wednesday. “There were four very good maps. The consultant … gave us options that made sense.”

Pope said that all the draft maps balanced out the district population, but the consensus was that Plan 4 best blended the boundaries of the three comprehensive high schools.

Board members did not want the trustee boundaries to seemingly focus on one high school or neighborhood, she said. Although a trustee will be elected by voters from one area, he or she will represent all residents, board members have said.

The National Demographics Corp. created four trustee boundary maps for the high school district. All four included a “majority minority” Latino district in the urban core of the city, a criteria for redistricting under federal voting rights law.

National Demographics senior analyst Justin Levitt said the map selected by trustees Tuesday night splits the San Pasqual High attendance boundary area between two trustee districts rather than keeping most of it in one trustee district.

The high school district is changing from at-large elections to voting by trustee area to comply with the California Voting Rights Act. At-large elections may be challenged if a demographics analysis indicates racially polarized voting exists.

A by-trustee area election system divides the school district into five areas. Registered voters in each area vote to elect a singular school board member, instead of voting for multiple candidates in a citywide election. The city’s K-8 district is engaged in the same process.

The high school district next will submit the map to the county Office of Education for approval, said Michael Simonson, assistant superintendent for business services. Meanwhile, the state Board of Education is scheduled in May to consider the district’s request for a waiver to avoid an election asking for voters’ approval of the trustee-by-area change.

The district is on target to start area elections in November, Simonson said. It must submit county education officials’ approval of the election change and map to the registrar of voters by June 15, he said.

The map and other information on the election transition is on the district’s website,
www.euhsd.k12.ca.us.